This is gonna be kinda hard to type but...
Here's the electron config of chromium:
1s
22s
22p
63s
13p
64s
13d
5And this is the shorthand version, of course:
4s
13d
5So basically the orbital notation would be:
? ? ? ? ? ?
4s 3d
I tried to put underlines beneath the arrows but it didnt work. The underlines that were supposed to be there indicate separate orbitals. Thats how you do orbital notation for d-orbitals.
The one catch with transition metals is that they promote an electron from the 4s (or whatever outer s-orbital they have) to the previous energy level's d-orbital. According to the rules, the 3d sublevel is only allowed to have 4 unpaired electrons since 4s must have 2 electrons. But in order to avoid repulsion in the outer levels so as not to lose an electron, an atom such as chromium would have all unpaired electrons in the outer sublevels.
But I cant find the place in my class notes where it says which transition metals promote electrons. Could you please help me with that one? Thanks!
Glad I was able to help you out, polaris.